2010 – “Trivia in 3D!”

As Jim Gray would say in 2010, “KVSC got a whole lotta Posse”. Eleven Posse members made the trip this year to St. Cloud to assist in the Posse’s stated role of staffing the Challenge Line for “all 50 hours of the contest”. New in the flock this year were Slider, son of Digital Dave and nephew of Fast Eddie, and Coco, formerly the leader of a Wisconsin based trivia team “Cowbell Trivia”. The large crew was needed to make sure nary a call was missed, produce an ambitious list of original productions, and record the Posse’s first infomercial.

Much to the chagrin of Captain F., this year’s original productions were heavy on the fart jokes. (More…)

It was a frustrating theme that greeted the Posse when it was announced in the summer of 2009. A largely visual theme that would challenge the Posse to employ audio techniques to simulate audio depth. The trickery would be minor as the main producers (Capt F., Phal, and Coco) went with tried and true theme communication though the use of savvy clip selection.

It didn’t take long to realize that up until this year there are very few clips in film and television that have people saying “3-D” or like-minded banter. The intro would employ a sub-them of “going to the movies” to fill in the gaps. It was originally thought that 1950s Sci-Fi movies might provide a gold mine of clips, however that tack only yielded the opening pitch. Thanks to Family Guy and The Muppets in 3-D, some very useful clips helped carry the intro through.

As previously mentioned, the audio 3-D aspect of the intro is best represented by music selection, mild reverb, and editing. More extensive plans were made but time was a cruel mistress. A “Director’s Cut” is forthcoming with additional enhancements.

The final sequence or “toss” to the announcers continues to mature. This year the scripting was very overt with Phal providing the branding, Jack P. Diddley the station IDs, and Capt. F the final toss as for the first time in Trivia history the actual announcers for Trivia were introduced by name as the contest opened. One of the emerging traditions in this segment of the intro is a yearly statement that warns of “50 hours of non-stop …” followed by a phrase that references the theme. This concept was first used in TSI: Trivia Scene Investigation took a break for two years and returned in Vote Trivia ’08.

This sequence was a monumental challenge for Coco since he was tasked with creating a custom music bed that had specific backing elements tailored to the spoken script. It was like Tchaikovsky with his Nutcracker as Coco time and time again adjusted the bed timing as Capt F. requested maddening change after maddening change. This was aided by Coco’s discover early in the production process of digital studio master copy of I’ve Got a Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas. With over 26 tracks of elements that most of us only hear in mixed form, Coco was able to tailor the bed for the exact emotional feel as dictated by Capt F. Of course the exact emotional feel of Coco toward Capt F. after the experience was one of homicide.

A final kudos to the Voice of Corn and KVSC Station Manager Mamma Jo for executing the on-air playback of the intro. For the first time since Capt F. conceived of the intro and its role in building emotion toward the beginning of the contest there were no glitches such as mis-timed studio clocks to ruin the carefully crafted timing of the piece. This year the Voice of Corn, who has been hosting the Trivia Pregame show for the past five years, launched the intro with his usual back-timing savvy so that the legal station ID’s contained in the intro would hit at precisely at the top of the hour. Save for a few of the intros, most finish with a music bed to allow Mamma Jo to carry the energy as she begins hour one. This year her technique, tone, and word selection was perfection of execution as if in Capt F.’s minds eye.

As is appropriate when a large group of people take a journey together, we all must take a moment to reflect. This year the Posse was very organized and dutifully logged all clips that could easily have been taken out of context. Hat-tip to Coco, Slider, Wildman, and Mr. Choo Choo; the look in the mirror was edited without any substantive input from Captain F., who was off doing TV, which is explained elsewhere on this page. With both challenges and some very clever original productions included the Posse reflected on the weekend’s effort and really liked what they saw/heard.

Each year,the Goat Posse presents “special awards” at the annual Trivia Awards ceremony. In 2010, for the first time ever, UTVS covered the event, and thanks to them, with a little coaxing from Mr. Choo Choo, we give you the 2010 Goat Posse Awards!

The Reamus team issues their first challenge of 2010, it was surprsingly precise. Too bad its another challenge where they meet in a public place which is sure to attract Johnny Law since Reamus can’t seem to remember that their challenge are broadcast over the air.

Team NMZ calls the late night crew of Princess Yum-Yum and Digital Dave to present possibly the most well-prepared and well thought out challenge of the year: a photo scavenger hunt that required some trivial knowledge/research of St. Cloud landmarks to complete. Of course, DD struggles to make a joke, resulting in the year’s only “crickets”.

Regrettably, this was take two of this challenge presentation. Captain F. managed to erase the first recording. FAIL!

With few calls coming in to the Challenge Line, the Goat Posse formulate a plan to utilize a telemarketing-like message, expertly voiced by Fluffer, to haras…er….contact teams, hoping to perpetuate challenges. We had some limited success, including this challenge by “DOA Hole” to Trivia icon, Gary Z.

Growing increasingly impatient, the Goat Posse place another call hoping to generate another challenge. On this call, challenge line virgins, “Team Poppins”, reluctantly accept a challenge presented to the team by Wildman.

When calling the Challenge Line the first thing you should do is offer your team name. The protocol is similar to calling the phone bank, in which you offer your team number. Regardless, some team called in proposing a parody song writing contest utilizing as many ‘D’ words as possible. Sadly, no one answers this inventive call.

The Voodoo Dolls foolishly challenge Mike Jones to “manifest his Cardinal”. Anyone that knows the inenarrable Mr. Jones knows not to taunt this man. He answered by not only taking pictures of the Voodoo Doll…well…let’s just say, “You Don’t Mess with Mike”.

Even when no one is biting on what was a very well produced and convincing Robo call, Uncle Corn can be counted on to first be confused then pivot quickly and expertly into playing along with the ruse. In fact, by the end of the call the Posse wasn’t sure who got punk’d.

The 9th offering in the stink series, the fifth produced by the Goat Posse. Dude took this one and ran with it, and with the result of Captain F’s contribution and Slider and Phal’s editing, along with some of the best testimonials ever, this could be the Stink topper.

“Harry’s House of Sheep” was written by Fast Eddie with help from his friend Rose and his brother Digital Dave. Believe it or not, HHOS was inspired by a late night chat room conversation that got out of hand.

Slider, DD’s 16 year old son, did most of the production work, and the piece was expertly voiced by J-Mont!

We love talking to all the teams most teams, which is why the Posse is disappointed when people hang up. We don’t all express sadness in the same way. If you listen closely, you can hear Mr. Choo Choo lash out in anger.

The JimJam remix of Tenacious D’s “F— Her Gently” garnered much positive feedback, including a few calls to the challenge line asking for copies of the song. This caller sweetens the deal with what can only be described as “Annie Leibovitz’s Fantasy Subject”.

Although not a Posse production (at the time), there were so many requests for this song right after it was played during “Safe Harbor”, we figured we had an obligation to offer it here. The one you’ve been waiting for…the JimJam Remix of Tenacious D’s “F*** Her Gently”.

COA was so well received by the volunteers of Trivia, the GP was asked to do an infomercial to promote it even further. Thanks, Skip! The script was hastily written and was intended for two people so that Skip Marks (the pitchman) had someone to talk to. The first live airing was done with two people on the Sunday afternoon of Trivia. UTVS wanted to do a second live airing in the hour between the end of the contest at 7 p.m. and the awards ceremony but Skip’s side-kick couldn’t stay.

That forced Captain F. to rewrite the script for one person and deliver it basically cold. Having never written a TV script before, the re-worked script had theatrical pauses in the form of carriage returns. However when the script was loaded in the teleprompter the breaks disappeared. This being the second time ever using a teleprompter, (the first being three hours earlier) Captain F. had to try and remember where he put the pauses. It didn’t go that well as phrasing takes a beating as Skip delivers his lines.

Other obstacles made the bit a train wreck (although it was partially the point that this infomercial was supposed to be amateurish by design) including the fact that the UTVS crew had just been on the air for 50 hours and there was really no one to give Captain F. cues of when to talk. The headset he wears is not attached to anything, and by the magic of TV you can see the Can Of Ass floating in the lower right corner of the screen, and sometimes the arm of Digital Dave.

A last minute idea conceived in the drunken stupor that lack of sleep can cause, this is the Posse’s attempt at a Flash Mob. Thanks to UTVS for making this look even better on film than it did in person, and to Princess Buttercup and Fluffer who managed to teach a choreographed dance to uncoordinated mid-westerners.

In January 2009, Jeff Skiles was flying along with Sully Sullenberger when their airliner hit a flock of Canada geese over New York City. Since then he has tried to do good things with his notoriety such as lobby for better pilot work rules and Co-Chair with Sullenberger a youth pilot initiative called the EAA Young Eagles program. Skiles and Sullenberger recently took over leadership of the program from Harrison Ford. Skiles took time to talk with Capt. F in the final days before Trivia. See below for how Skiles participated in the contest.

Capt. F, through his affiliation with the EAA, found Jeff Skiles of US Airways Flight 1549 fame sitting across from him at his desk a week before Trivia. Capt. F briefly explained the Trivia phenomenon and Skiles agreed to read a question for the contest. Skiles recorded the question that day and Capt F. brought the question with him to Trivia. Capt F. convinced the question writers to slot the question during Hour 27. The Goat Posse hosts Hours 27-30 on the air during every trivia. Capt F. and J-Mont-G are both professional pilots and host an aviation themed Hour 27. (at least in costume) The Skiles question was the first of the hour and was worth 60 points. Of the 67 teams playing only 24 answered correctly, (35%) which is the percentage that question writers aspire to when shaping their questions.